FAKE LOVE
by CherryBlossomBubble
Summary: Everyone teases Sakura about being in love with Sasuke, but is she? Should she be? Is the mans even worth it? Read to find out pls. In this story, Sasuke is done atoning for his sins for a little bit and has been home in Konoha but Sakura hasn't really made any efforts of seeing him. She has no particular reason though. Read how the two start chilling with each other hehe
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't work Naruto.

* * *

 _Happy birthday, Sasuke,_ Sakura stared at her phone screen before hitting send. It was a simple birthday message, nothing wrong with that. But why did she feel like she was adding so much unnecessary stress on herself?

If he replied, cool!

If he didn't, that's cool too!

Giving up, she started to delete the message – but not before Ino had caught a glimpse of the screen. The two girls had been on their break together at the Konoha Children Mental Health Clinic that they had worked so hard on establishing. They sat on one of the couches closely to one another since Ino had plopped down heavily on Sakura who got to the couches first.

"You have Sasuke's number, Forehead?" she inquired, more intrigued than she was just a second ago.

Sakura blankly looked up at her. "Oh." She looked back down at her screen. "Yeah, Naruto basically said it was mandatory for us to have each other's numbers so I didn't really have a say in that." She fake laughed.

Ino didn't buy it.

"Come _on_ , don't act like you didn't beg Tsunade-sama for it." Ino snickered at the thought.

Sakura rolled her eyes at the assumption from the blonde. "Dude, that's so old now. I can't wait for the day that everyone stops teasing me about the guy. We're older now, I thought everyone would at least be smarter, but I guess not."

"Calm doooown, Forehead. Jesus. It was a joke. You know all of the girls were basically head over heels for the guy." Ino put her arm around Sakura's shoulders. "But you're the only one that's kept those same feelings, dude." She laughed. "Everyone else has moved on."

Sakura gaped at her. "What makes you think I haven't?"

Ino pointed down at her phone. "Because you're still dwelling on whether to say happy birthday to him or not! What's the hold up?"

"Nothing."

"Okay." Ino snatched Sakura's phone in an instant.

Sakura immediately reached forward for her phone but Ino turned her back to Sakura and hunched over the phone, mumbling incoherent words as she typed back the text that Sakura had typed out before backspacing. Except Ino added some. "And send! You're welcome, Forehead."

Sakura clumsily caught her phone as Ino had side-tossed it to her direction. Sakura deadpanned as soon as she realised what Ino had done.

Nothing bad.

"Bitch," Sakura finally breathed out.

Ino winked at her comically. "Chill. It's just a heart."

Yeah, it was just a heart. But Sakura could feel her own heart becoming heavier with each passing second. She stared at the message: _Happy birthday, Sasuke-kun! 3_

"Back to work we go!" Ino chirped before dashing out of the break room.

* * *

"Shikamaru and Chouji wanted to meet up later, are you doing anything?" Ino inquired, removing her white coat. The two were now heading out from their shift at work together. After not receiving a reply from Sakura, she turned around – only to find a Sakura who was staring at her locker blankly. "You're not still upset because of what I sent, are you?"

Still no reply.

Ino grabbed Sakura by the shoulders and rattled her. "Sakura." Still nothing. "I already apologized like 200 billion times, stop stressing over it! A heart means nothing! I swear, dude. You're so extra!"

Sakura finally snapped out of her trance and glared at her friend in front of her who was still in close proximity to her. " _I'm_ extra?" She landed a finger at Ino's chest. " _You're_ extra!" She sighed, feeling defeated, and ran her fingers through her short hair. "It's whatever at this point. I'll just agonize over this in the comfort of my own home."

Ino perked up. "Oh yeah!" Ino started packing her belongings faster. "Why be sad in your bed when you can enjoy quality bonding time with Ino—Shika—Cho!" Before Sakura could respond, Ino had already grabbed her arm and was pulling her out of the building.

"Are you sure it's fine with Shikamaru and Chouji?" Sakura quickly voiced while half-ass attempting to stop Ino.

"Shut up, you know we're all desperate to be around each other and catch up these days! It's so hard to make time when everyone's schedules are so fricking different,"

"Yeah, but this is your team – "

"I said shut up." Ino rolled her eyes at her. Sakura didn't catch it.

The two lightly chatted with each other as their feet carried them to their destination. Sakura had asked where they were even going, and Ino had just shrugged, muttering about how she didn't know the name of the place that they were grabbing sweets, but Chouji had been dying to visit since it was one of the newer establishments in Konoha – she didn't know the name of the place but she knew where it was at. It was a cute little bakery that Sakura had heard about but never seen. Sakura sighed at her friend and just accepted the situation.

After a while, Ino finally voiced out, "I'm surprised your team's not doing anything tonight – considering it's Sasuke's birthday and all. I feel like Naruto definitely would have made plans for the occasion since he's so deeply in love with the birthday boy."

Sakura laughed. "You're not wrong there. But who knows, maybe adulthood's finally caught up to him and he's too busy now."

Ino shook her head. "He's probably just has another date with Hinata and forgot what day it was,"

The two laughed.

"That's also a possibility." Sakura reflected.

Ino smiled at her friend. It was nice to finally spend time with Sakura like this. Sure, seeing each other at the clinic was nice, but it wasn't bonding to her. Yeah, the time spent with each other at the clinic was nice and working with your best friend was definitely a bonus, but times like these really made her appreciate her time with Sakura. "Thanks for coming out with me, Sakura. I'm glad you're finally agreeing." Ino suddenly aired her thoughts.

"What?" Sakura verbalized her confusion form the off-topic comment.

Ino laughed lightly before elaborating. "Before, you'd be so quick to reject any plans that we had. I'd constantly ask you to get tea with me around the time the clinic was finished, and you'd tell me no each time."

"Oh." Sakura's heart slightly ached at the statement. She didn't know what to say. She didn't mean to reject Ino that many times in retrospect.

"It's fine," Ino reassured her with a playful smile. "I deadass just assumed you were bitter and depressed because Sasuke came home and then immediately left the village again so it's fine,"

"Ha-ha," Sakura lightly punched Ino on the shoulder, "You're so annoying."

Ino winked, "Was I wrong though?" Ino didn't wait for a reply before she realized something. "Isn't that what he used to say to you all the time? Wow, Sakura, you're developing his vocabulary! Is it safe to assume that you guys have been hanging around each other a lot then? Is that why you were ballsy enough to message him happy birthday? When did you guys hang out? Did you grab food? How come I didn't know about this? Rude, honestly, but it's fine, just tell me about it – "

Sakura stopped walking and let all of Ino's questions sink in, her hands placed in front of her as if they could stop the barrage of questions Ino had thrown at her. " _No,_ what the heck Ino. No. The last time him and I talked to each other was like months ago when I bumped into him and Naruto, quit assuming –"

Once again, Ino abruptly interrupted Sakura as she realized another thing, "Has he replied to you yet? A thank you for the birthday message?" her eyes lit up and she clasped her hands together in front of her as they started walking again.

"No," Sakura said in a low whisper before adding on, "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Ino repeated. "What?"

"I turned my phone off. A reply from Sasuke or not, it's fine." Sakura lied.

"How are you not dying right now? I literally used to anticipate every waking second of my life whenever I messaged Sai,"

"It's different,"

"How?"

At this point, the two had reached their destination and had been standing outside.

"Okay, enough talk of this. Don't utter one word about Sasuke to Shikamaru and Chouji." Sakura warned.

"You know they wouldn't give a crap about stuff like this, but," Ino mimicked zipping up her mouth. "Sasuke who?"

And for the rest of the night, the two enjoyed the company of their two friends and nothing about the text was ever mentioned. The group mainly talked about life and how each of them were doing in these newer times.

Sakura went home that night with a smile on her face, feeling content with life for a change.

* * *

 _the next morning_

 ** _Bzzt, bzzzt! Bzzt, bzzzt!_**

Sakura groaned from under her blanket and reached for her alarm clock on the bedside table, eyes still closed, and disabled her alarm. She threw the blanket off and half-sat up in bed, leaning on an elbow. She had never turned on her phone again last night. She grabbed it and turned it on. She unlocked her phone after seeing all her email notifications from work flood her lockscreen. Sakura was halfway through skimming the email reports that the closing staff at the clinic had sent her when she realized something.

She quickly left the emails and went on her iMessage, the last conversation popped up immediately and coincidentally enough, it was her conversation with Sasuke. Her heart sank a little.

 _Read 5:30 AM_ ✓.

* * *

 **A/N:** hey yall, i'm sorry i couldn't think of a name for the bakery, that's why i left it out :D

Anyway pls review, thank you for reading, I will be updating soon


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

Sakura leisurely walked to the couches where Ino had already settled down on and was already taking up a majority of the couch. Ino peered up at her above her phone screen and gave a questioning look. Sakura didn't notice it and continued on in her languid daze. Sakura sat down on the little room that Ino left for her on the couch. Ino threw her legs off to the side of the couch and exhaled loudly in an annoyed manner, causing Sakura to look in her direction.

"Alright, either you just had to deal with some annoyed parents, or you have a hangover." She pondered on her own comment. "Actually that wouldn't make sense, you were with me last night. Unless you did some morning drinking – which is something that wouldn't surprise me, you _do_ spend a lot of time with Tsunade-sama," Ino continued on but Sakura wasn't listening.

"Ino," She finally voiced. She couldn't really say anything, she realized. It was stupid getting distressed over something so trivial. Sakura unlocked her phone and opened up her conversation with Sasuke – she couldn't even call it a conversation because the man didn't even reply. She turned her phone towards Ino and held it to her eye level. Ino gaped.

"Oh, honey," Ino gave her a sad pout and moved closer to wrap an arm around her shoulders. "It's okaaay, you're gonna be okay."

Sakura quickly dismissed her comment, "No I'm okay, I'm just butthurt I guess. I feel like he would have at least said a thank you? I don't know. I thought we were at the very least… friends?"

"Sakura, maybe he's just not tech-savvy, you know? I can't really imagine Sasuke texting anyway, like maybe it's really just not his thing," Ino tried to reason.

"No, don't make up excuses for him." Sakura breathed. "It's whatever."

"It's not whatever,"

Sakura sat up, Ino shifted on the couch trying to catch a glimpse of her friend's disheartened face. She knew Sakura wasn't okay but before she could make a comment, there was a loud noise from behind the breakroom doors.

"Sakura-chan!"

Sakura's head snapped towards the noise and her slightly widened when a blonde popped through the doors and ran to her. "Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan," Naruto hastily sputtered her name before continuing with, "Sasuke's really out to kill me today," he whined, reaching to hold up his shirt from the side, showing a small gash; it looked like it maybe have been a sword or kunai cut. Naruto groaned out of frustration and grabbed her wrist, "Please heal me before he gets here,"

"Huh?" Sakura questioned.

The door opened again and there were footsteps, then nothing. Sasuke stood there in silence, face completely bare of any emotion.

"Sasuke?" Ino was the first to break the silence.

Sakura could feel her blood begin to heat up under her skin. She wasn't mad, she was more embarrassed, she definitely didn't expect to see Sasuke any time soon. She was actually hoping to never see him for a while so the embarrassment in her head dies down so that if she _were_ to bump into him, it wouldn't really affect her much since it would have been a while at that point. But no time has passed. It was literally last night. She pulled her wrist away from Naruto's grasp slowly. "Sure, come this way," she mumbled, but Naruto was already trucking behind her. Sure enough, Sasuke followed the two when they passed him and just like that, Ino was left alone in the breakroom, very confused, but this was something that should be a norm for the trio.

Sakura examined Naruto's minor injuries and began to heal him, Naruto explaining to her what had happened but Sakura wasn't paying much attention to him. She zoned out but continued to heal. There wasn't really much going through her head, however. Not until her eyes landed on the Uchiha that had made his way to her desk and had leaned against it, looking unbothered as always.

Before she knew it, Naruto was always looking better than before and he was basically done, the rest of the scratches he could deal with on his own. She chose this time to tune back in on whatever Naruto had been blabbering about.

"—but on the real though, Sakura-chan, I think Sasuke's just triggered because you didn't show last night." Naruto placed his index finger on his chin, seemingly putting the puzzles together in his head.

A short scoff was heard from Sasuke. Sakura turned to him to give him a questioning look before returning her gaze to Naruto.

"What?" she finally voiced out.

"What do you mean, "what"? We called you so many times. Did you forget it was Sasuke's birthday? I didn't. We went out to eat last night, even Kakashi-sensei answered his phone and that man _never_ does! But halfway through, we saw you at that new shop with Ino and them so we just went, I don't know, it seemed kinda harsh for you to ignore my calls like that though, we would have understood if you had plans already—"

"Naruto, what?" This was too much for Sakura to take in. "I didn't get any calls."

She had turned her phone off. Sakura wanted to rip her hair out once realization had set in. "My phone wasn't on the entire night; I didn't get any of your calls." She quickly explained.

"Oh!" Naruto grinned at Sasuke. "Well that explains that!" His phone buzzed and he typed out a short reply before placing his phone back in his pocket. He started towards the door, "I gotta go, I forgot Hinata and I were supposed to meet up after training with Sasuke. I didn't think I would have needed to be healed so now I'm late!" He waved and was out the door.

Sakura faced the door, too embarrassed to face the man behind her. She really did that to herself – missing an opportunity to celebrate Sasuke's birthday because she was dumb and turned her phone off and made with situation stupid. Is that why Sasuke never replied and only opened her message? Who knows. But Naruto's more adamant than that, he would have physically looked for her if she didn't answer her phone. Clasping her hands together behind her, Sakura finally turned to Sasuke. He didn't look like he had injuries at all, just a little dirty from his fight with Naruto. Nothing too bad.

"Do you even need anything healed?" She inquired.

Sasuke straightened up from his leaning position and tucked his hands into his pockets. "Not really." And with that, he started to make his way to the door.

 _Should I even try to talk to him about the text message?_ She mentally asked Inner Sakura. No reply. With a frustrated sigh, Sakura reached towards him without actually touching him, hoping to stop him, "Sasuke-kun, wait,"

Sasuke tilted his head towards her.

Sakura continued, "Belated happy birthday," there was silence.

"Thanks," Sasuke started to walk away and Sakura felt nothing.

Well, there's that. She got what she wanted, right? A thank you from the Uchiha. But it still didn't feel right. "Uh," Sakura took a step forward. "I'm sorry I missed your birthday dinner."

"It's fine."

Sakura searched her mind for anything to say to the man in front of her, hoping for anything just to keep him there and actually talk to her. "I'd like to make it up to you,"

 _What am I saying?_ She thought to herself.

"You don't have to." He nonchalantly replied and placed a hand on the door handle. Sakura could basically hear her own heart breaking.

"I want to," she finally chirped up. "My phone was turned off last night when I was out with Ino's team. I would have definitely gone along with you guys if I had known about it earlier."

Sasuke let go of the door handle and faced Sakura full-on. "Would you like to go out on a ride with me?"

"…" Sakura blinked. _What?_

Sasuke averted his gaze. "This week's going to be sunny, it wouldn't be so bad for a bike ride."

"…" Another blink. _What?_

Sakura raised a hand to her head, not believing her ears. "Are you serious?"

Sasuke slightly raised a brow at her.

"You're serious," Sakura stated finally. "Like bikes?"

"Naruto's been helping me out with my motorcycle," Sasuke explained.

 _Motorcycle?!_ Inner Sakura was vibrant and vivid.

"You can say no." Sasuke affirmed to her.

"No!" Sakura cleared her throat. "No, I wouldn't mind it at all." She whipped out her phone and opened up her the calendar app, tapping through the days, checking her schedule. "What does your agenda for this week look like?"

"Sakura, you know I'm free all the time."

She did know that.

"The question should be, when are you free?"

Sakura could feel herself going soft for the man in front of her. Was he really asking her to hang out with him? She couldn't believe it.

"I'm off next Thursday," She locked her phone.

"I'll see you then," Sasuke exited the room and Sakura was left there, staring at the spot where he had been at just merely seconds before.

 _BITCH!_ Inner Sakura was going wild. _Are we really about to spend time with Sasuke Uchiha?!_

* * *

 **a/n:** yall pls review! i'd love it! tell me what you like and don't like pretty please :)

also yes bich sasuke has a motorcycle i'm cryin


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